I have numerous anxiety disorders- and next week we are taking a tent camping trip with our 3 daughters. While I camped when I was younger- being a mom and a super high anxiety level has been giving me sleepless nights already.
We are going to a park camping- where I often camped growing up. I don’t ever remember having problems with bears there- just at other locations in northern michigan when we camped. Anyways- when I called the park office to inquire about the bears- I felt so silly and irrational- that I was almost hysterically laughing when I asked if they had bears- so after that question, i thanked the young man and hung up. I am now wishing I had asked more questions. He did say "We are next to the woods, so there can be bears"
I’ve been up there recently visiting some family camping- and almost everyone (that i remember) has campers and pop-ups. I don’t remember anyone or very people were in tents. We cannot afford a camper, nor can we afford to rent one right now- and we do have a very nice 10 person tent we have used before. But sleeping in a tent with the possibility of bears is freaking me the f out – to be honest.
(1) Should I call the park and inquire more about the bears? (How often do they come to the campground- etc…)
(2) Would I be better off paying 10 dollars more a night to camp at a location more south of where I am where they don’t have bears? (peace of mind)
(3) If we do camp there- where would be the best place to camp to put the less likelyhood of a bear visiting our campsite? The campside is surrounded by a winding large river on two sides and the other two sides are a national forrest. Would we be better off camping as close to the river as possible- farther away from the woods as we could? Should we camp near other tent campers? My fear is that people in trailers aren’t worried about the bears- and that they will leave food or something out to attract the bears and then they will come to our little measly tent next door.
(4) Please don’t laugh- I know this fear seems irrational- because all fears are- but to me it’s a very real fear.
ok this is where i get paranoid- i realize bears are attracted the food/scents. Because the campground isn’t in bear country (northern michigan or the UP) and it’s classified as "occassional bear sightings" on the DNR map- they don’t have bear proof food storage lockers. People just leave their coolers etc sitting outside their campers. So this is why I am a little freaked out and considering finding somewhere more southern where its even less of a threat.
You think you have problems, read this article,
http://news.yahoo.com/bear-safety-lecture-yellowstone-interrupted-bear-220941425.html
Ok lets answer your questions. Anxiety can be treated with XANAX see a doctor.
1. Always talk with the rangers it makes them feel important like they are accomplishing something and you get the latest info about everything including any bear problems.
2. Yes it may also have better features since it costs $10 more sometimes these are worth it being closer to the lake or having bathrooms and showers etc.
3. It doesn’t matter where in the campground that you pick, a bear follows it’s nose, it is looking for food, trash anything that smells or looks tasty. Keep a clean camp, do not cook , eat or store food and smelly things in your tent. Use the the bear proof food lockers and camp about 100 feet away from that.
When in bear country wear red flannel so the bears see you coming. Wear bear bells so the bears hear you coming. Carry pepper spray for those sudden close encounters. One way to tell if your in bear country is to look for bear scat it will have red flannel and bells in it and smell of pepper spray.
Good Luck!
i’m thinkin fear of spiders, except for black widow or brown recluse, unreasonable.
fear of bears, makes sense
Try bumping your blood sugar level up if you feel a panic attack coming on. Just keep a bar of chocolate in your pocket and give yourself that little chocolate ‘rush’, to put yourself back into control.
Food brings in the bears, not tents. Just make sure that your food is in the bear box. Don’t have any food in the tent. I have done a lot of camping in bear country and twice had bears in the campground. It is no big deal. You make a little noise and they run away. All they want is a free meal. If there is no food to be found, they will leave you alone.
A few times I’ve had issues with animals when I was with women during ‘that time of the month’.
If anyone is ‘at that time of the month’ you might consider going where there aren’t critters that are attracted to the smell – just my opinion.
Call the park and ask them for advice. They most certainly want the best experience for you and the local wildlife.
Here in the Sierras the bears went to sleep hungry last winter and I’m waiting for them to get a bit more full and fat before I go wandering off into areas I’m not familiar with.
Lions have always been more of a concern for me (though walking through the city is FAR more dangerous), especially when there are small people around.
Don’t camp within 100 yards of a water source if you’re worried about critters.
Critters need water and visit the sources frequently.
from a 2008 report on bears in Michigan:
" Although black bears are large and powerful animals, they are not normally aggressive toward man. Black bear attacks are responsible for only three recorded deaths in Michigan since records have been kept, the most storied attack occurring in the Eastern U.P. on July 7th, 1948 – A three year old girl was playing on the porch of the family cabin when she was snatched by a black bear.
To put the safety issue in perspective, national statistics show for every person killed by a bear, 17 are killed by spiders, 67 by dogs and 180 by bees and wasps.
Black bear sightings have become more common in recent years. In the past few years, there have been confirmed bear sightings in Bay City, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Midland, and Clarkston.
To many a hikers distress, the location of bear sightings is increasingly becoming the campground. Fortunately, the bears do not want the campers, merely the coolers, picnic baskets, and other food related items that they can drag off for a quick snack."
I’ve tent camped all over the country for 40 years, even in grizzly country, and have never had a bear encounter except in my boyfriend’s front yard out in the country, where the black bears try to raid his bird feeder. We chase them away by banging on pans. Black bears just are not that aggressive — if you keep a clean campsite they won’t come around. As far as selecting a camp site, pick one away from the picnic shelters and far from the trash dumpsters. Chances are very high you will not see any bears at all and almost nonexistent that they would hurt you or your family.
Your kids (and you) are safer in a tent in a campground than in a car on the highways of Michigan or even in your house. There are way more accidents in those locations than camping.
someone like you isnt made for outdoors, stay inside
don’t understand the previous knock on Park Rangers–we all work very hard and provide knowledgeable and important information to campers. go ahead and call a Ranger again if you feel worried. i guarantee it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve had questions from worried people about bears.
What will calm you down the most is to get as much accurate information as you can about bear behaviour. read articles not about how powerful they are, but about how to avoid encounters.
the whole "they’re more scared of you" is cliche, but it’s true in the case of black bears. 80% of their diet is vegetarian, and they’re not the bloodthirsty creatures that people make them out to be. black bears do NOT want a fight, and so will sooner run from such a situation than fight back. what scares people is that they’re very curious creatures, and so can sometimes get a bit closer to humans than we would like.
moving your campsite anywhere else won’t make any difference, nor is moving closer to the sound of a river, because rivers don’t exactly frighten bears.
statistics say that being attacked by a bear is less likely than being struck by lightening.
having a tiny bit of fear of bears is actually a good thing, because that means you won’t be doing anything stupid around them like leaving food out or walking toward a curious bear, which is typically the two biggest causes of problems.
to scare one away, just clap your hands and yell at it. you don’t need to go out and spend money on bear spray or anything like that. the last time i read about a bear attack was when a stupid lady kept walking toward a mother and her cub because she wanted a better picture. so don’t do anything like that and you’ll truly be fine.
I never met a bear that I did not like. I usually meet a couple of friendly bears every year at less than a hundred feet. I only had one in my tent and she was just looking for an easy meal because other campers had left food out prior to my visit and following my visit to the designated camping area. She had three cubs in a tree behind my tent, but made no fuss about leaving the area when I made a little noise. Almost all of my encounters with bears are in towns or developed campgrounds. When I hike to a dispersed campsite of my own choice, I have never had any visit by a bear. Your impression that you are less likely to encounter a bear in the more urban areas of southern Michigan than in northern Michigan is mistaken. You would need to go south of Florida to avoid meeting any of the 30,000 or so black bears in the United States. All of the problem bears stories that I have heard about, and they are extremely rare, have been cornered and threatened, fed, or otherwise encouraged to be a nuisance. Your chances of being harmed by a bear are statistically about 1:1,000,000 versus about 1:90 of being killed in a motor vehicle. Therefore, spend more time with the bears of northern Michigan and less time among the drunk, distracted, and incompetent drivers on the roads in southern Michigan.
At least your just dealing with black bears where I live there are grizzlies too. Take all the food you have (including toothpaste and any other stuff like that) and tie it up onto a tree 6 feet from every direction. Black bears aren’t something to be too afraid of but they definitely kill people every once in a while so you better watch out. If you really want to stay safe bring a higher caliber gun or just a can of bear spray.
"You would need to go south of Florida to avoid meeting any of the 30,000 or so black bears in the United States".
Hate to tell Mountain BUT there are black bears in Florida, esp on the Gulf Coast north of Tampa…..used to live there!